March 5: Bob Dylan
I think Bob Dylan's song,
MAGGIE'S FARM, is about the frustration an artist feels having to spend
the most productive hours of the day doing an unfulfilling job rather
than doing what he loves best, creating art.
Consider these lyrics:
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
No, I aint gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
Well, I wake up in the morning
Fold my hands and pray for rain
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin' me insane
It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
And what artist can't relate. There you are - scrubbing a floor or painting a fence or ringing up someone's groceries - and you get a killer idea for a song or a story or a painting. And what can you do? Nothing. Most of the time you can't even jot the idea down. You have to work because you have to pay the rent and the grocery bill.
It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor.
-
My interpretation is unique, I suppose. Most of the people who know Dylan interpret it as a protest song against the folk movement, which Dylan was a part of in the 1960s. They say that Dylan wrote this song to tell his fellow folk artists that he didn't want to be pigeonholed in one genre.
And here we are in 2014 and Mr. Dylan is still around and folk music is kind of on its way out.
The times they are a changin.
-
The biggest Bob Dylan fan I ever met was Ali Pearson, who passed away last year after a long fight with cancer.
She was in high school when I met her. I was writing a newspaper story about what young people were doing for the upcoming March break. Ali told me she would only participate if she could mention Bob Dylan. Okay, I said.
She told me she was planning on spending March break listening to Bob Dylan.
That is one of my favourite newspaper stories.
-
Before Ali passed, a few of us considered trying to get ahold of Bob Dylan to see if he would deign to call Ali while she was fighting the disease. But nothing came of it.
-
I used to think BLOWIN IN THE WIND was a hymn. That's because the first time I heard it was at church. Bob Dylan actually went through a born again phase. My favourite song from this phase is SERVE SOMEBODY, which has this funky little hook: "It may be the devil and it may be the Lord but you're gonna have to serve somebody."
I guess I'm in the minority there because Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as the second worst Dylan song.
I hope it said the best Dylan song ever is LIKE A ROLLING STONE.
-
Bob Dylan once told a journalist that it's very difficult having people tell you how much they dig you when you don't dig yourself very much.
I'm not sure how I feel about that. I've written things that I think are absolute crap (plenty of these note-a-day thingees qualify on that score) but if a reader tells me that they enjoyed them, I'm not going to slap them in the face by telling them they're wrong.
-
I once thought it would be a funny sort of youtube sketch to intercut Bob Dylan singing BLOWING IN THE WIND with some guy (played by me) honestly answering his rhetorical questions.
To wit:
Q. How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man?
A. Well, Bob, if he's 18, he's a man. It doesn't matter how many roads he walks down. Manhood and the ability to walk are not mutually inclusive.
Q. Yes and how many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?
A. I'd say one at the very most. Doves actually don't like flying very much and they get tired very quickly. But why would a dove sleep in the sand? A dove would probably feel safer sleeping in a tree. Safer from predators.
Q. Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly before they're forever banned?
A. Probably a moot point, Bob. Banning cannonballs now would be about as practical as banning two-handed swords. Soldiers just don't use cannons anymore. Neither to pirates, actually. Today they tend to use machine guns and nuclear bombs. Maybe you should be asking about those.
And so on...
-
I have to publish this now because the battery is going to die.
Consider these lyrics:
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
No, I aint gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
Well, I wake up in the morning
Fold my hands and pray for rain
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin' me insane
It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
And what artist can't relate. There you are - scrubbing a floor or painting a fence or ringing up someone's groceries - and you get a killer idea for a song or a story or a painting. And what can you do? Nothing. Most of the time you can't even jot the idea down. You have to work because you have to pay the rent and the grocery bill.
It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor.
-
My interpretation is unique, I suppose. Most of the people who know Dylan interpret it as a protest song against the folk movement, which Dylan was a part of in the 1960s. They say that Dylan wrote this song to tell his fellow folk artists that he didn't want to be pigeonholed in one genre.
And here we are in 2014 and Mr. Dylan is still around and folk music is kind of on its way out.
The times they are a changin.
-
The biggest Bob Dylan fan I ever met was Ali Pearson, who passed away last year after a long fight with cancer.
She was in high school when I met her. I was writing a newspaper story about what young people were doing for the upcoming March break. Ali told me she would only participate if she could mention Bob Dylan. Okay, I said.
She told me she was planning on spending March break listening to Bob Dylan.
That is one of my favourite newspaper stories.
-
Before Ali passed, a few of us considered trying to get ahold of Bob Dylan to see if he would deign to call Ali while she was fighting the disease. But nothing came of it.
-
I used to think BLOWIN IN THE WIND was a hymn. That's because the first time I heard it was at church. Bob Dylan actually went through a born again phase. My favourite song from this phase is SERVE SOMEBODY, which has this funky little hook: "It may be the devil and it may be the Lord but you're gonna have to serve somebody."
I guess I'm in the minority there because Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as the second worst Dylan song.
I hope it said the best Dylan song ever is LIKE A ROLLING STONE.
-
Bob Dylan once told a journalist that it's very difficult having people tell you how much they dig you when you don't dig yourself very much.
I'm not sure how I feel about that. I've written things that I think are absolute crap (plenty of these note-a-day thingees qualify on that score) but if a reader tells me that they enjoyed them, I'm not going to slap them in the face by telling them they're wrong.
-
I once thought it would be a funny sort of youtube sketch to intercut Bob Dylan singing BLOWING IN THE WIND with some guy (played by me) honestly answering his rhetorical questions.
To wit:
Q. How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man?
A. Well, Bob, if he's 18, he's a man. It doesn't matter how many roads he walks down. Manhood and the ability to walk are not mutually inclusive.
Q. Yes and how many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?
A. I'd say one at the very most. Doves actually don't like flying very much and they get tired very quickly. But why would a dove sleep in the sand? A dove would probably feel safer sleeping in a tree. Safer from predators.
Q. Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly before they're forever banned?
A. Probably a moot point, Bob. Banning cannonballs now would be about as practical as banning two-handed swords. Soldiers just don't use cannons anymore. Neither to pirates, actually. Today they tend to use machine guns and nuclear bombs. Maybe you should be asking about those.
And so on...
-
I have to publish this now because the battery is going to die.
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